Detection and characterization of nanoparticles in the surface water: challenges and findings

Nanoscale material release (Nanoparticle of < 100 nm) in surface waters is growing concerned worldwide. Understanding the fate of Engineered Nanoparticle (ENP) in the environment is essential for accurate assessment of their aquatic toxicity. It is estimated that there are more than 1800 consumers products found in the environment, containing Nanoparticles. Due to their ultrafine invisible nature, it is very difficult and highly technical to detect them in the aquatic environment. Due to the complexity of environmental samples and the limitation of available analytical techniques, the study of the fate of the Nanoparticles in real environmental samples is challenging. Often, the detection of ENPs in surface water requires the use of multiple technologies in tandem including ultrafiltration, centrifugation and ionization techniques to identify the nano elements. As part of this thesis research, a systematic review of the procedures and techniques that researchers are currently using for detection as well as characterization of the nano contaminants in surface waters are studied. Besides, synthetic samples with standard ENPs in distilled water are used to understand the dispersion fate behavior of ENPs under the controlled matrix of aquatic chemistry. The analysis of dispersion and aggregation was carried out using DLS (direct light scattering) as well as induced coupled plasma (ICP) -atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) at discrete time of sonication. Results clearly showed that the dispersion of the ENPs is very small but increased with time of sonication. Among the metallic analytes studied, Copper had better dispersion compared to the rest of the ENPs studied. In general, aggregation of the particles increased initially, but later after 3 hours of sonication, it started decreasing.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Year dc:date.available

2021

Author dc:creator

• Tareq, Syed Mohammed

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bathi, Jejal; Palchoudhury, Soubantika,
• Owino, Joseph; Fomunung, Ignatius; Onyango, Mbakisya; Wu, Weidong
• College of Engineering and Computer Science

• Nanoparticles
• Water -- Pollution
• Zeta potential

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/664

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1825